Word on the street

Populist promises won’t take us out of poverty

President Peter Mutharika is good at making promises; empty promises.

After failing for the past three years to develop the country, the President has rolled up his sleeves and taken to laying foundation stones to hoodwink Malawians into voting him into office again.

In a desperate dash and to be seen to be working, he has been going around the cities promising a lot of things and laying foundation stones here and there.

The fella who is molding or supplying government the foundation stones or whatever Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) officials call it, should be smiling all the way to the bank by now, because the President has indeed been busy lately.

Almost running out of breath (the list was long), he promised to build a 186 kilometres ring road in Blantyre, 20-storey hotel and conference centre—the first of its kind in the city, a new airport at Chileka, a district hospital, a new stadium… the list is endless.

In Thyolo and other districts in the South, the President promised to build more district stadiums, roads, clinics, irrigation schemes and school blocks, etc.

Good people, all of a sudden, we have a Santa Claus in this country. Our dear leader is so rich that he can afford to develop this country at the blink of an eye.

Should we, on the streets, applaud him for this? Hell no. If you ask any man on the street, are these the things that they want at present, many will tell you that they do not need a hotel or a stadium. Of course, they will say a new stadium won’t be a bad thing in Blantyre, but it is not important now.

The many projects APM is throwing around as a bait will be developed by loans from China. The President is taking the country where we do not want to belong again; a league of nations that are knee high in debt.

What is even sad is that the loans will have to be paid by our children and grand children in 20 to 40 years to come. Is this what we need as a country?

Word on the street is that, there are more serious problems that Malawians are facing that APM need to focus on and solve in the short-term, if he is to be seen to be working.

The major problem as of now is poverty. How new stadiums will end poverty in this country, only APM knows.  But poverty is worsening and it is something the administration must deal with by simply building an enabling environment for people to do business. Ending corruption quickly comes to mind.

I will not belabour you with statistics on poverty, because, Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world. You do not need any evidence, just look at the pair of pants you are wearing today. Sorry to disappoint, but if it is not kaunjika from benddown boutique from a some second hand clothes market, it is a second rate import from China.

The other challenge this country is facing is rising unemployment, especially among the youth. Unemployment has reached crisis levels in the country because new factories are not opening up, some are shutting down and opportunities to the most poor youth to start a business are not existent due to strict lending laws.

In its findings, International Labour Organisation (ILO) says in most low income countries like Malawi, at least three in four young workers fall in the category of irregular employment, while nine in 10 young workers remain in informal employment. Why APM ignores the issue of youth unemployment, only those close to him know.

There are so many more problems that government can do to take Malawians out of poverty without resorting to stifling loans from China. APM must also learn to leave city development to our city fathers. They are better placed to do that.

The President has a huge role to play in this country by giving the nation direction and implementing the government blueprint, the Malawi Growth and Development Strategy (MGDS) not leading us away from the nation’s goal of end poverty.

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